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CNN Live At Daybreak
IAEA Spokesman Mark Gwozdecky
Aired December 20, 2002 - 07:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: It's not so much what's in the Iraqi weapons declaration that is frustrating the U.N. The U.N.'s bigger worry is what is missing. The report is getting low marks from chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
So what does it mean to inspectors now on the ground in Iraq?
Joining us from Vienna, Austria, IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky.
Welcome.
Good to have you with us this morning, sir.
We wanted to start off by talking about what Iraq maintains it does not have, which is a nuclear weapon program. And yet at the U.N. yesterday, Mohamed ElBaradei used this as an example of one of the glaring omissions in the declaration.
Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOHAMED ELBARADEI, DIRECTOR GENERAL, IAEA: There was reports by Iraq during our meeting in Baghdad that there were efforts to procure aluminum tubes. We need, there is nothing in the report to give us details about this effort to procure. We need more details on it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: What can you tell us about these 60,000 tubes that Iraq was trying to import?
MARK GWOZDECKY, IAEA SPOKESMAN: What I can tell you is that the allegations are that these tubes are a special kind of tube used in centrifuges to enrich uranium in a nuclear weapons process. Iraq claims that the tubes were meant for rockets and what we would have liked to have seen in the declaration was evidence supporting that contention, things like procurement plans, procurement documents, original documents showing that, indeed, this shipment was meant for the purpose of building rockets, not weapons.
We didn't see that and as far as that goes, it's a bit of a missed opportunity. It leaves an outstanding question for us to resolve and we'll have to get to it one day or another and we hope that they'll provide that kind of information in due course. ZAHN: The BBC is taking it even one step further today, reporting that Iraq also tried to import vacuum pumps, a winding machine and special chemicals needed in gas centrifuge cascades. Did the declaration highlight any of those things?
GWOZDECKY: Paula, I can only speak for the nuclear side of the declaration, and as I've mentioned, there is at least one area where they could have done more. What I can say also is that, you know, the inspectors can't do it all ourselves. We need some help from the Iraqi side to produce evidence to exonerate themselves. We also need some help from countries like the United States and Britain that make allegations and apparently have intelligence and we'd like that intelligence to lead our inspectors to people and places where they claim weapons of mass destruction are being harbored or produced.
So on both sides, that kind of information would speed the process along considerably.
ZAHN: And how much help do you need from Iraqi scientists, because there's a report in the "Washington Post" this morning that senior Iraqi officials declined to commit to allowing your inspectors to leave the country with Iraqi scientists to ask them some very important questions.
GWOZDECKY: Well, we conduct interviews as a matter of routine during all of our inspections, and our agency alone has done 70 inspections to date. So interviews are happening. The question is whether we will do any of them outside the country, and our position has always been we need to have a couple of things before we can exercise that authority.
One, we have to identify people with something particularly important to tell us. Two, those people need to consent to leave the country because we're not in the business of abducting people. And three, we need countries to step forward and offer these people protection and asylum. If those three conditions are met, we're quite happy to exercise that authority.
ZAHN: And do you think that could, those three conditions could be met in a reasonable time frame, by the end of January, perhaps?
GWOZDECKY: We live in hope and there's no speculating on what might happen. But, you know, you can see that it's a realistic possibility but, you know, these things need to fall into place.
ZAHN: Well, we wish you tremendous luck, Mark Gwozdecky.
We very much appreciate your time this morning.
Thank you for dropping by AMERICAN MORNING.
GWOZDECKY: Thank you, Paula.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 20, 2002 - 07:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: It's not so much what's in the Iraqi weapons declaration that is frustrating the U.N. The U.N.'s bigger worry is what is missing. The report is getting low marks from chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
So what does it mean to inspectors now on the ground in Iraq?
Joining us from Vienna, Austria, IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky.
Welcome.
Good to have you with us this morning, sir.
We wanted to start off by talking about what Iraq maintains it does not have, which is a nuclear weapon program. And yet at the U.N. yesterday, Mohamed ElBaradei used this as an example of one of the glaring omissions in the declaration.
Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOHAMED ELBARADEI, DIRECTOR GENERAL, IAEA: There was reports by Iraq during our meeting in Baghdad that there were efforts to procure aluminum tubes. We need, there is nothing in the report to give us details about this effort to procure. We need more details on it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: What can you tell us about these 60,000 tubes that Iraq was trying to import?
MARK GWOZDECKY, IAEA SPOKESMAN: What I can tell you is that the allegations are that these tubes are a special kind of tube used in centrifuges to enrich uranium in a nuclear weapons process. Iraq claims that the tubes were meant for rockets and what we would have liked to have seen in the declaration was evidence supporting that contention, things like procurement plans, procurement documents, original documents showing that, indeed, this shipment was meant for the purpose of building rockets, not weapons.
We didn't see that and as far as that goes, it's a bit of a missed opportunity. It leaves an outstanding question for us to resolve and we'll have to get to it one day or another and we hope that they'll provide that kind of information in due course. ZAHN: The BBC is taking it even one step further today, reporting that Iraq also tried to import vacuum pumps, a winding machine and special chemicals needed in gas centrifuge cascades. Did the declaration highlight any of those things?
GWOZDECKY: Paula, I can only speak for the nuclear side of the declaration, and as I've mentioned, there is at least one area where they could have done more. What I can say also is that, you know, the inspectors can't do it all ourselves. We need some help from the Iraqi side to produce evidence to exonerate themselves. We also need some help from countries like the United States and Britain that make allegations and apparently have intelligence and we'd like that intelligence to lead our inspectors to people and places where they claim weapons of mass destruction are being harbored or produced.
So on both sides, that kind of information would speed the process along considerably.
ZAHN: And how much help do you need from Iraqi scientists, because there's a report in the "Washington Post" this morning that senior Iraqi officials declined to commit to allowing your inspectors to leave the country with Iraqi scientists to ask them some very important questions.
GWOZDECKY: Well, we conduct interviews as a matter of routine during all of our inspections, and our agency alone has done 70 inspections to date. So interviews are happening. The question is whether we will do any of them outside the country, and our position has always been we need to have a couple of things before we can exercise that authority.
One, we have to identify people with something particularly important to tell us. Two, those people need to consent to leave the country because we're not in the business of abducting people. And three, we need countries to step forward and offer these people protection and asylum. If those three conditions are met, we're quite happy to exercise that authority.
ZAHN: And do you think that could, those three conditions could be met in a reasonable time frame, by the end of January, perhaps?
GWOZDECKY: We live in hope and there's no speculating on what might happen. But, you know, you can see that it's a realistic possibility but, you know, these things need to fall into place.
ZAHN: Well, we wish you tremendous luck, Mark Gwozdecky.
We very much appreciate your time this morning.
Thank you for dropping by AMERICAN MORNING.
GWOZDECKY: Thank you, Paula.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
